Three Idiots – All Izz Well

Three Idiots released in the last week of 2009 proved to be the lucky charm for Bollywood and garnered around 100 crores within four days of its worldwide release. The movie is still doing well at the Box Office and is all set to enter the record books for the highest grosser of all times in Bollywood . This performance is despite the controversy that hounded it for sometime but couldn’t affect its overall performance.

On the contrary, the controversy only fueled the collections of movie and the novel on which it is supposed to be based. The fact that the movie is based on the novel “Five Point Someone” by Chetan Bhagat is a debatable topic but the film can be enjoyed by most factions is an accepted and proved verity.

The film endorses that one should constantly strive for perfection and denounce rote learning. This is evident in most parts of the film and even in the closing stages when we witness Rancho as a winner. He sets as an ideal example of the person who studied for his own enlightenment and not to get a good job or start a business.

In India, education is often regarded as a way out from poverty for the poor people (Rastogi family in the movie is a fine example) and the middle class like the Quereshi’s always have their eyes on their ward to be the next Bill Gates or Warren Buffet. This is not an exception being shown in the film but a day to day reality being experienced by Indian children. They are always told to get higher grades rather than acquire mastery on a subject. Thus it was not a strange fact that it was the parents who protested the scraping of board exams by HRD minister Kapil Sibbal.

The movie also shows that it is not only the parents that are committing such mistakes but the teachers are not far behind. They usually tell the students the fixed answer to a particular problem and rarely encourage new and innovative ideas. This is exemplified by the simple and to the point definition of machine as given by Rancho in the film which was discarded by his teacher. So the movie does a commendable job in depicting our performance oriented education system and showing a way to students, parents and the teachers.

Coming to the lighter side about the film, Aamir Khan, the Rancho in the film, had to lose weight his eight pack abs that he developed during the filming of Ghajini and he was quoted saying that: “I am surviving on milk and few bananas as I have been asked to lose weight for the role”.

Rancho in the film once goes on to say that people study engineering than get a management degree and eventually land up in pursuing Banking as a career, thus stressing the fact what is the point of studying engineering. This is exactly what has transpired in the life of Chetan Bhagat (movie is based on his novel) who studied Engineering from IIT Delhi, Management degree from IIM and eventually became a banker. The name of the college in the movie is named as “Imperial College of Engineering” which is the older name of Indian Institute of Technology- Delhi.

Thus coupled with interesting facts and the message conveyed the movie is a sure shot entertainer for the masses and the critics and is finding appreciation everywhere. Thus we can surely say that “All Izz Well”.